Matasy, also an accordionist, ended the concert's first half with two Guy
Klucevsek accordion compositions. The solo "Loosening Up the Queen" featured
a melancholy Balkan melody, played softly, sparely, and slowly at first,
then louder as it gained momentum and harmonic richness with each
repetition. In the engaging quartet "Flying Vegetables of the Apocalypse,"
the three strings played jazzy riffs over a lively 6/8 accordion rhythm. The
piece proceeded cheerily through several odd-gaited time signatures before
coming home.
Opening with three more anniversary bagatelles, the concert's second half
was dominated by Schoenberg's rarely played "Suite, Op. 29," composed in the
mid-1920s and arguably his first masterpiece employing the forbidding
12-tone system he created.
The ensemble's rendition, beautifully conducted by Schuller, brought a
distinctively Viennese lilt to an idiom usually associated with
expressionist anxiety. Their precision, grace, and passion illuminated the
dense, bristling composition, emphasizing its continuity with tradition as
much as its radical break from it.
As befitting its name, the ensemble made a high-modernist dinosaur live
again.